


Flames to Polish

by xeshirehc



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, GW is an MMORPG; expect that level of violence, Gen, Other NPCs and idols may appear to fill space, Other SVT members may appear, prior knowledge of game and lore unneeded, set in the realm of guild wars, unsure of relationship tag; they're all friends or will become friends
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-20
Updated: 2017-11-20
Packaged: 2019-02-04 13:22:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12771957
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/xeshirehc/pseuds/xeshirehc
Summary: Kryta had been in disarray after the king had fled in the face of an invasion. A coward, he had been branded. Soonyoung agreed, and he'd have been more sympathetic for the people if he hadn't been busy being so affected as a foreigner. No, wait, a refugee. An immigrant. He didn't have it in him to complain at the semantics, but it still soured his initial impression of the Tyrians. Not five days off the ship and already he (and everyone) received news of one of the three human kingdoms falling to the Charr. He sighed, but tried to smile anyway. At least here, he could start over as Hoshi.A year passes following the war's end.





	Flames to Polish

He prided himself in many things. He did know there were still a lot in the world he had yet to learn and that there wasn’t any feasible way for him to learn it all, but there were certain things he definitely had a critical eye for. Like... knowing who to smile at during even the bleakest of cases. Or keeping his arrows true when he had to fledge them from scratch.

Or looking over a room that had definitely been broken into.

Recently.

“Whoa.” Whoa was right. Chan followed behind and didn’t hide his surprise as he took in the neat shelves, the polished desk, the combed fur rug. Everything was in pristine condition, and Soonyoung watched the other boy hesitate a moment before finally stepping through the door. He kept his steps lighter than usual.

Soonyoung turned back to the window. Its panes were crystal clear, enough to trick a bird or three. Both thoughts amused him. “Feel anything?”

“This isn’t the type of magic I work with, not really.” Chan lifted a palm to catch the light from the window. A slight rotate of his wrist, and the ray followed. “I’m not feeling the upkeep. Whoever did this knew how to leave their illusions idle.” Soonyoung stayed planted as the other waved his hand around. Fractured ice and bubbles floated in the wake of his slow spin. “This is really strong. Either that, or I’m still weak,” Chan huffed in frustration.

But Soonyoung trained his eyes on the images through the flecks of water, and it was enough. He saw pockets of the real room in disarray, letters scattered and books strewn across the floor. “Nah, you’re good. Can you do that over here?” He walked closer to the desk, and Chan followed and repeated.

It took a bit of peering from different angles through Chan’s prisms until Soonyoung found what they needed to know. From beneath the wood, he frowned up at Chan, who in turn deflated.

“It’s not here.” Vocalizing it didn’t make either of them feel better.

“Agh! Why is someone else in on this!?” Chan let his magic dissipate. They had wanted to leave the place as speckless as they’d enter, but the point was moot now. Someone stole the job from right under them, not to mention the perpetrator had access to stronger magic than the younger. Soonyoung sympathized.

“If we track them down, we’d just need to steal the parcel from them. Or maybe find some evidence elsewhere.” He threw in the latter half-heartedly. Although dealing with an unknown factor, a person nonetheless, heightened the risks exponentially in his opinion, they had neither the time nor another lead to take the alternative seriously.

Chan was silent, thinking, glaring at the stupid perfect rug beneath Soonyoung’s cheek. Soonyoung raised an eyebrow, but grinned in encouragement. “We can take them.” He continued when seeing the eye roll, “I’m being serious!”

“Assuming it was only one person,” Chan caved, “or even a group, whoever did this should still be within town, maybe even the same block. They could be resting or waiting to leave, whichever, but they should still be nearby. Not unless they figured out how to trudge through the storm yesterday,” Chan nodded, to himself. “And maybe I’ll get to study their magic first-hand.”

Soonyoung saluted. “Good enough for me! Maybe we can ask the sentries if they’ve seen someone like us,” he joked. A fellow thief, huh. Chan pulled him up, and the two left as quietly as they had entered.

 

 

Hakewood was, simply, a nice place.

And the short of it was, they had been hired to find a particular incriminating evidence against an opposing party for some kind of political thing that Chan hadn’t really paid his memory to. He had been outside wrangling with a geomancer on the flexibility of wards. What an idiot. Elementalists were meant to be open-minded, duh, not stubborn like a grawl’s backside. No wonder the company was incompetent enough to need to hire the duo.

While Hoshi went to scrounge up more information about any potential enemies of their employer, Chan tasked himself with searching for signs of their mysterious competition. He walked through the large village without much worry for his robed appearance. The green plains of Kryta spanned a good fourth of the center arch of the continent, and Hakewood itself was close to the major port city of Lion’s Arch, so travelers of several professions were not a rare sight.

The people were kind even while busy, and he exchanged waves with a number of the fisherman. Many were tending to the wreckage and flotsam left by the storm, and he only realized he ended up by the coast when a young man, though still older, hailed him directly. “Hey! Could you give us a hand here?” Someone behind the guy had just given up pulling on a tilted boat hugged by the jutting rocks.

“I don’t think I’d be much help!” Chan had no delusions about his lack of strength, but he still jogged over. The man had made eye contact with a gleaming overconfidence, so maybe it was help for something else. “What is it?”

“We think it’s the anchor. It came loose and managed to lodge our boat against the riprap.” The...?

“I wouldn’t do much trying to push it out,” Chan repeated, figuring whatever the man said probably had to do with the boat being angled out of the water.

“Oh, no! I wouldn’t ask that of you. I should apologize. I saw your wand, so I thought maybe you could do something with... something...” With magic. Well, at least that was reasonable. The glimmering rod was tied to his waist for all the world to see. Silver frost colored the opaque ice.

Something must’ve shown on his face, because the second guy spoke up through his breaths. “We would really appreciate it! We tried for the better part of the hour, but it hasn’t budged...”

Chan only gave them a ligh smile, but the man took it positively. “Here, I can show you where the rocks tumbled over the anchor. Thanks for this. Oh! You can call me Benji. And that’s my brother.”

Benji led him over the algae-covered broker wood that filled the gaps between the boulders. Chan supposed the artificial wall did its job, but he paid no more than a cursory acknowledgement. The brothers’ assumptions and hopeful expectations were heavy, but he wanted to help even if he shouldn’t spare the time.

 

 

A year ago, Soonyoung would’ve scoffed. But then he’d remember how deeply rooted and influential the gangs of Kaineng are, were, are, and he’d concede that maybe it was acceptable for some unorganized bandits and cultists to be operating as free as they currently were. It was still annoying though, needing to deal with them. He’d huff later when he wasn’t in front of an easily stressed noble whose opinions didn’t sit well with Soonyoung. But hey, Plio was tame, so it was a reasonable job for the price.

“There has been a budding resistance against the White Mantle. Beats me why, considering they’re the ones who saved us,” Plio supplied. They've been at this for the past twenty minutes. Aside from him and his employer, three others were in the room: two guarding the door and another sifting through the shelves. “Perhaps they have it against me for supporting their order.”

“From what they we’ve seen, they’ve stuck to the roads more,” the secretary spoke. “With the stormy weather recently, they likely wouldn’t risk it.” It must’ve been a small resistance for them to avoid the villages outright, Soonyoung idly noted as he leaned back into the chair. “What if it was your opposition from the start? They could be trying to keep their own information safe. A misdirection?”

“They’d still have to store it somewhere,” Soonyoung supplied. “If they plan on leaving the area, I think they’ll meet up for information first. Confirmation and payment, either-or. Know any loud places at this time? The busier, the better.”

“A list of potential discreet spots, then? The path to the temple is often traveled, but we’ve been keeping an eye on the entrances.” Oh, good to know they’ve been active. “The shores are always busy with fishermen coming and going, preparing and unloading. It should be even more crowded with them tending to the mess left by the storm.” The secretary patted Plio’s shoulders as he talked. A bubble's comfort against a gale.

“That will have to do,” Soonyoung says with confidence as he stands. “As long as there’s a chance, we’ll get what you’ve asked.”

“Please. And don’t worry, I assure you I still have your own parcels prepared.” Soonyoung would’ve been more impressed, but, the desperation reaked. He shared a look with the secretary who only shrugged. Eh, it was sincere enough.

Soonyoung nodded in acknowledgement and excused himself. He retrieved his bow from where the door guards kept an eye, secured it to his back before leaving with his head held high, posture straight. Only after he cleared the block's shadows did he slow down and look to his sides. Whatever presence had been lingering around was gone now, but it lasted long enough. He smiled as he flexed his fingers. Wisps of shade coalesced into a wire he began to follow.

**Author's Note:**

> I've decided to write again after so many years. This is my first upload, so please feel free to point out weird things like tagging oddities!


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